Friday, June 30, 2006

The CB craze was something that taught more than one toy company a valuable lesson, no matter how fast you can turn out a product, sometimes it's just not fast enough to jump on a fad.

CB Mchaul was the Mego attempt to cash in, a series of nine figures, three vehicles (although a fourth was planned) and one playset. The figures and packaging was based on the Mego Comic Action Heroes line.

By the time these figures hit the shelves in mid 1977, the song "Convoy" was so last year. So despite having a nice set of vehicles and some beautifully rendered Hal Shull packaging, buyers ordered lightly and old CB was in the clearance aisle by 1978.

Today, there are very few CB McHaul collectors but the insane rarity of certain pieces (such as carded figures) keep their values some what moderate. CB figures are often found broken in package and the vehicles are rarely complete.

I collect CB McHaul and need a few key pieces, if you've got something give me a yell!

Thursday, June 29, 2006

By the mid 1970's, GI Joe, the pioneer of action figures was in a tight spot. Kids were turning their attention to bionic men and Superheroes. Despite trying to emulate this trend (Bulletman anyone?), GI Joe's sales were slipping and Hasbro needed to revamp the concept.

Enter SuperJoe, the 8" Mego like figure with the "1-2 Punch", this new Joe was some sort of outer space explorer/hero/ranger type (Hasbro was always vague with things like this) and he had a series of cool friends and enemies.

Despite a cool light up gizmo and some nice package design, Superjoe was a dud.

Looking back as a kid, I remember the line was kind of "sexless", I got the Shield as a "shut up" toy in a department store and once his flashlight battery burned out, so did i.

As an adult I discovered that Superjoe ain't much fun to collect. His body much like the GI Joe muscle body, breaks apart meaning MOC figures often are just in pieces, so intact figures demand high prices and some of the human figures are uber rare.

What's interesting is that Hasbro pimped this body out using other company names (Like Aviva with their Space Academy figures) and for foreign lines like Ceji.

Super Joe fizzled by 1978, even the popularity of Star Wars (and the lack of product) couldn't make this line fly but as we know, it wasn't the end of Joe.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The late night screening of Superman Returns had me go back to 1978 and see what kind of Super Merchandise they offered. A far cry from the the 1976 explosion, it still has some old staples still around today (they're just not as fun) I tried to keep this DC specific.

Viewmasters- Take that DVD's, we had the good guys pack and it ruled. I never had it but a kid in my class did, I was haunted when Black Adam turned to dust.

Oddly enough a friend of mine dropped by my office eight years ago and accidently left the Marvel version of this on my desk, it's still here! Mark come get this crap!

Utility belts- Remco cranked these out for years, whether it was perfectly logical (Batman) or downright Bizarre (the Hulk only had a rope belt people!).

Mego Superheroes- The finest toys known to man, if that man is me. A lot of figures have come out that are much more articulated and authentic but they have none of that nostalgia. Like I needed another reason to harp on about Mego stuff.

Friday, June 23, 2006

pYet another page in the book of Super Hero sleep wear. Here we find the DC trinity and lookie, the boys get capes! Sorry Wonder Woman, For some reason the producers of this outfit decided to be comics accurate for a change.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

I took my kids to see my parents yesterday, my son made a beeline towards the toy box, a strange mixture of my old toys and some from my nephew.

One of the toys my son started playing with was the sea explorer from this set, still 100% intact despite having three different owners and being thirty years old.

I must have had a thousand hours of play from this line and most of it was likely non violent adventure, the whole thing kind of eroded when my mom bought me the TV Action Team , by that time I was busy with Superheroes.

One of these days I'll go after FP Adventure People hard core but for now I'll just keep my originals. After all, I wouldn't want to deplete my Mego money.

Friday, June 16, 2006

For a while Rob from the Megomuseum board has been threatening to start a website devoted to treasury edition comics and when he finally did it, he truly exceeded all expectations.

Treasury comics.com is one of those sites that grabs you and never let's go, a person can truly browse around for hours marveling at this tribute.

For those not in the know, Treasury comics are oversized comics that were produced by all of the majors during the 1970s which petered out during the early 1980's. They are a mix of reprints and original material (such as the amazing Superman vs Shazam!)and I will be honest, they are the sole reason I love comic books. Since Rob started the site, I've probably purchased 10-15 new treasury editions.

A great tribute to the treasury comics appears on the megomuseum with the announcement of the latest trading card, it's a reenactment on the most famous treasury cover ever.

Monday, June 12, 2006

I was flipping through the 2006 Sears Catalog and found their selection of Superhero Pajamas, you have a choice of Superman or Batman. I was curious, so I went back thirty years to see the selection in the 1976 Sears Wishbook.

Holy Night Night Batman! I never even knew there was such a thing as Green Arrow Pajamas or Aquaman for that Matter. Top those items off with the World's Greatest Housecoat and it's a good case for kids having it better in the 70's, at least in the "pajama selection" thing.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

It brings me to a funny story, I'm a former video dealer, so my house is littered with crummy VHS bootlegs of things that are mostly now available on DVD.

My 3 year old son, whose head i have been filling mostly with superfriends DVD's (because it's going to make him popular on the play ground when he's the only Aquaman fan) asked for some new cartoons.

I could have turned on treehouse and let him watch Carebears reruns, i guess.

But nooooooo, I dug through and found my copy of Legends of the Superfriends and he loved it! Every moment of it, although he admitted Solomon Grundy scares him, he also admitted to not liking "Egg McMuffin" whoever that is.

So Now I am forced to watch it almost every day, while I'm pleased he picked Black Canary as his favorite, should I really let my son go though life thinking the Legion of Doom are borscht belt comedians?

The trouble worsened when my mother babysat one day and my son asked her to put it on. "isn't that Charlie Callas?" sent shivers down my spine as i headed out the door.

At least it could be worse, I could be showing him the Star Wars holiday special.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Punch clowns have never made sense to me, I take that back, I comletely understand why somebody would want to beat up a clown, they're creepy. It's stuff like Snoopy and Batman that I don't get, you obviously love the characters, why would you want to pummel them?

These kind of Punch Clowns always remind me of a new years eve party my parents went to in the seventies. The people having the party had a son my age and they shoved us both in the basement. The kid was extremely hyperactive and actually scared me a little, I watched him beat a punch clown about a thousand times as he laughed maniacally.

His next game of "Let my Guinea Pig free, turn off the lights and run around" was something I decided to miss and I actually left the basement, snuck into the TV room and watched "A Man called Sloan" episodes. Happy New Year!

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Some more things I never see at toyshows, vintage raincoats. I like how Batman and Robin look like their emulating a Golden Age comic pose while the Superman is your standard old silver age artwork that's older than the kid wearing it.

I also enjoy like the bionic man slicker, this is from Sears 1976 BTW, it looks like Steve Austin is coming out of the time tunnel....

The Mego Meet Wrap up continues at the Mego Museum Blog. If you missed going this is the best way to recap events.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

It's very rare to see the woman get the short end of the stick in this combination but here it is! I wish I had better example than a 60/40 but I can't, usually the outfit is too femmy for the man .Anyway you slice it "Dress alikes" are bad, if you're still not convinced wait until tomorrow's chamber of horrors!